


Blueprint Blitz

by Bluefire510



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Bonding, During Canon, F/M, Mutual Pining, Set during the movie, Vent adventures, both panicking because they're 14, sneaking around the school
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25330900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluefire510/pseuds/Bluefire510
Summary: Where did Magenta and Zach go once they disappeared into the vents while the others fought Penny, Lash, and Speed? And how did the group obtain the school blueprints that would lead them straight to the anti-gravity device? This fic explains the events leading up to that discovery. ZachxMagenta GuineaGlow
Relationships: Magenta/Zach (Sky High)
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is not canon compliant with my other story 'Bedroom Talks'. I've always wondered where Magenta and Zach disappeared off to in the vents. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 'A Little Recon'

"Go take care of Gwen. We'll handle these clowns"

"Go,"

With Warren and Layla's urging, Will went off to stop Royal Pain. The rest of them were left behind facing the three assholes that had been making their freshman year hell. Lash already stepped forward with that shit-eating grin and the only sounds that echoed through the hallway was Speed's hearty, obnoxious laugh.

Zach clenched his fist, ready to show these punks just how he-

Magenta all of the sudden shoved him lightly in the direction of the vent they just popped out of, and she slipped inside. What the fuck?, he wanted to yell at her. Like, the others are gonna face off against three of the most powerful seniors at Sky High, why should he run?

Then he quickly remembered he was wearing his dad's shoes and they were old and had a slippery sole. Yup, not good for combat. Also, the sudden realization that the combination of his and Magenta's powers were the equivalent of what you might find in a 5th grader's bedroom on Halloween just finally washed over him.

They could kill him.

So Zack went in after her. But that didn't mean he was a coward.

Magenta waited until Zach put the grate back before they crawled back towards the gym. Green light emanated behind her. Dammit, she should have let Zach go first.

"Maj," his voice was uneven but kept at low whisper, "Why did we escape danger just to go back into even worse danger?"

"It's because we have to make a break for it. Most likely we're the only ones unpacified." She felt bad, even though Warren only had enough time to get the group away to safety.

Plus, the more people they could have ushered out, the more noticeable their escape might have been. It was a... calculated risk, if she were to put it logistically, as if that were to quell the guilt turning over in her stomach.

"So no one called for help. Got my cell right here," Zach sent a silent thank you to his stepmom who made him input the number of the Super Federation crisis line in his phone. He flipped it open, "How long do you think the call would take because my parents are gonna have to pay for the minutes-"

"They'll forgive you, but," she stopped before they reached the gym's ventilation grate, "Maybe not now. How do you feel about doing a little recon?"

He grinned, "I'm down."

"Great. Can you get in front?"

"Yep, Rudolph comin through,"

"You might wanna dim down. They could see," Zach got rid of his glow just as they pressed their faces against the grate, still singed from Warren blasting at it earlier. It seemed as though the Pacifying itself had ceased. The polished gym floor was scattered with infants laying atop what used to be their formal wear.

There were too many babies to count, some were crawling out of their dresses and tuxes. The only figures walking about the place were Royal Pain and the weird court jester minion and they looked to be bickering over something.

"Thank god they're not dead," Zach whispered in relief.

"Do you think she would have turned them all to babies just to kill them?"

"Babies don't put up much of a fight,"

Magenta's face contorted in disgust at the thought. Gwen wouldn't stoop so low as to murder babies. But Zach made a point. It would be fairly easy to snuff them out now when they were defenseless. What a morbid thought.

"I have a feeling if she wanted to kill everybody in that gym, she would have done it already,"

Then all of the sudden, groups of people, all donned in black, even wearing black face coverings and maybe even black spandex underneath, marched in columns of two through the gym doors, each carrying a box. The one upfront, set down his box and went to speak with Royal Pain.

Zach pressed his ear against the grate, straining to hear the words exchanged but couldn't discern anything given their distance. Meanwhile, Magenta scanned around the room and saw boxes had already been brought to the gym and have been piling up near the bleachers.

They watched as each of the black-clad goons were opening up the boxes to reveal parts of some kind. Then all of the sudden, Royal Pain, in a fit of rage lifted a contraption in the air, shaking it in the direction of the goons. Upon closer inspection, Zach furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Is that… a car seat?" He nearly stifled a laugh when the goons began unpacking the rest of the boxes, its contents revealing to be parts for said baby car seat. He had to clamp his hand over his mouth when the court jester-looking dude waved the instructions on how to assemble the chairs and Royal Pain's frustrated groans echoing through the gym,

"Are they seriously fighting over how to put together a car seat?"

"They are pretty tricky," Magenta noted, calling back to the years when her younger brother had been a baby in need of being strapped in. Then, it appeared Royal Pain gave an order and about half of the goons, about 10 or so, headed back into the hallway.

From what they witnessed, Royal Pain was planning on moving the babies. But where?

"We gotta follow the goons," Magenta suggested. They needed more information.

Zach was hesitant. It was fun doing recon for a bit, but now knowing that the babies were being taken somewhere, they needed backup, "Are you sure? We should call for help. Maybe if we find a hallway-"

"But what can we tell them?"

"That Royal Pain is back and turned everyone at the homecoming dance into babies including the two best superheroes on the fuckin' planet. And she's planning on kidnapping them somewhere?"

Her eyes widened and nodded, "Now that I hear it coming out of your mouth, yeah. That sounds really urgent and really important," she conceded but still made the point that they should follow the goons so they know where they need to go to make the call.

Zach lit the way, apparently he was a gifted navigator, able to figure out where they were going now knowing where the main hallway was from the gym. He was able to make a couple of turns to the hallway they knew the goons had walked in.

Now, it was all about hearing for the footsteps, the sound of marching clicking on the floor tiles, but Zach can't, for the life of him, hear it, not amidst all the shuffling and breathing the two of them were doing.

And just to not think about the fact that him and his friends were spared by being turned into babies and those same friends fighting some pretty heavy hitters in the Sky High Senior class, Zach was in an absolute predicament.

He was in an enclosed space with Magenta, the girl he had been trying to win over since the first week of school.

He could admit there was this rush, teaming up with her, getting some Hero (Support) work done and spying on the enemy for intel. But he didn't want to bring that up right now, knowing that Magenta would probably treat this as a serious scenario. And it was, definitely. He was super stressed out.

But it didn't mean that whenever they would squeeze through the vent to make a corner that he couldn't help but feel his whole body starting to sweat. Good thing she was wearing her arm warmers, otherwise she would have definitely made a comment about how slippery the vents were getting as she crawled behind him.

Meanwhile, Magenta was busy concentrating on locating the goons. Stopping every now and then at an intersection to see if the new noise was either their friends fighting off Penny, Lash, and Speed or if it was just the sound of them moving within the vents. It wasn't until they were close to a grate overlooking another hallway that they both heard the marching.

Quickly and without making too much noise, they inched towards the grate just in time to see the two of them rounding the corner. But unfortunately, unlike where they met up with Will, this vent was a bit higher up the wall, which made any attempts at quickly wiggling out and following after them infeasible.

Luckily, they stopped, appearing to answer an inquiry on their walkie-talkies.

"East Corridor on the 3rd Floor clear, over." Then two others emerged from the same corner the former came from.

The one that had answered the walkie stopped the two, "You two are headed for the loading dock, right?"

"Yeah. Gotta make sure those buses are up and running,"

"Just confirming. Now go," Then those two proceeded to go down the hallway and disappear, maybe going up the stairs.

Magenta shared a look with Zach who was currently not glowing. She could see beads of sweat dripping down from his face, it made her reach for her own face. Seeing that they have been crawling for some minutes now in this enclosed space, it was just hitting her that it was getting real claustrophobic in here. It must be worse for him, using his powers too at the same time. 

_Soon_ she tried to emote to him but then the two goons they were spying on began engaging in more informal conversation.

"How much time we got left, man?"

The one without the walkie checked their watch, "About 40 minutes,"

"Whew," he blew out a sputter compared to that of a horse, "Would not want to be here when the whole place hits ground level,"

The second laughed, "Ain't that the truth."

Zach grew panicked, mouthing a shocked _What!?_ at Magenta, whose eyes grew wide and who had to cover her mouth from yelling out the same sentiment.

"Were we supposed to help build that conveyor belt thingy for the seats that RP was talking about?"

"No, you idiot. She's a technopath. She'll do it. We just gotta make sure the hallways leading from the gym to the buses are clear,"

Zach took at his cell phone and fiddled with the buttons until he got the timer going, counting down the minutes until the school somehow was rigged to fall out of the sky. _Shit. Shit. Shit._

Magenta managed to pull herself out of the shock and was tapping Zach's shoulder and jerking her head towards the last intersection they passed through. Zach crawled ahead, nearly slipping from his own sweat and once they were a good distance away from that hallway, Zach peered out a passing vent grate and saw no goons dressed in black. In fact, they were directly over a classroom. He stopped and made Magenta circle back. She tried to jiggle the cover open.

Will's super strength would have been great right about now.

She decided fuck it, and lightly kicked it open.

"Shit!" Zach reached forward and caught the cover last minute all while Magenta smacked her hand on top of Zach's mouth for cussing so loud. They stared at each other for a minute, while Magenta felt the warm sensation of Zach basically breathing into her hand.

They waited, making sure that nobody heard and decided to investigate the classroom.

Magenta was aware that the distance between her and the blonde was small now that she had leaned forward to grab at his face. She probably had never been this close to a boy before and she quickly retracted her arm and shimmied down through the opening before he could notice the small blush growing on her face.

_Focus, Maj!_ She scolded herself, _You and your friends could die_.

Luckily there was a desk right underneath her when she hopped down. Otherwise it would have been a louder reentry into the real world. The nice, spacious, cool world.

Zach mentally berated himself for letting himself get so loud. And the fact that Magenta had to quiet him, now things were going to be awkward between them for sure. Although, they had a much pressing issue to deal with. Once he got out of the vents and onto the desk, Magenta was already pacing around the room in her slightly poofy purple dress.

He adjusted his tux before joining her, trying to relay what they know so far. Which they both would admit was… a lot , a lot to take in.

"So," Zach began nonchalantly before erupting in rapid arm movements, that Magenta could say looked eerily similar to his dancing earlier at Homecoming, and silently screaming while spinning around in circles, _Like what the fuck? What the actual fuck?!_

He righted himself in time for Magenta to try her best in being composed when inside she felt like doing the same thing Zach just did. She relayed what they learned, "Okay, so… they have buses waiting to," she made a sweeping motion, "to receive the babies?" _Did not think I would say that sentence ever,_ she thought dryly.

"And Gwen must have tampered with the anti-gravity device that Ron was talking about. The one that

keeps the school up in the air," Zach followed up, "Only 40 minutes, we don't have much time!" he whisper-shouted, running his hand through his spiky blonde locks, "What do we do? _What do we do?_ "

Magenta knew exactly what they needed to. Like Zach said. There wasn't much time. And Will was preoccupied, as well as Ethan, Layla, and Warren. They were the only other ones that pacified.

"First, we call the Fed. They won't know any of this is going on,"

Zach whipped out his cell, scrolling to find the number, "And then what?"

Maj winced, not entirely confident of the next part, "We… find where they have the anti-gravity device? Have you heard anything about where it is?"

"Nope. When do they actually tell us anything important in this place?"

Magenta managed a little laugh, 'That's for sure,"

Zach grinned, basking this moment where he made Magenta laugh amidst stressing circumstances. Until, an idea sparked.

"The library," he recalled, "It's got the archives. The archives got blueprints!"

"How do you know that?"

"We were snooping once. Me and Ethan. He's got that crazy theory that there's, like, a super secret senior bathroom that's, like, really loaded. I'm talking about nice hand soaps, warm towels, and a couch. Maj, a couch!"

The shapeshifter rolled her eyes, "They say that for every high school bathroom. There's no such thing as a senior-only bathroom," she sighed. She couldn't really judge how he came to this really useful piece of information. What was important was that they knew where to go from there. Even though the _how_ to get there was a bit on the tricky side.

"I guess we're going to the library,"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Magenta hopped onto the teacher’s desk, biting her nails whilst trying to think. 

So they already had their game plan: get to the library, grab the blueprints, find the anti-gravity device, and undo whatever Royal Pain did to it. Easier said than done since she and Zach already hit a snag trying to complete phase 1. 

The thing about Sky High- there were so many fucking floors to the place. The administration was still in the process of putting in elevators- as if that were reliable when they’re facing against a technopath. And not only were there were so many levels, the levels themselves were huge, it took them forever to even make it to the opposite wing as the gym, which she assumed. 

Magenta knew that them being on the same floor as the gym, the chances of them getting caught by Gwen’s goons were insanely high. And to get to the library, which was a couple floors down, they needed to find a way to the stairs. 

Meanwhile, Zach had been trying to call the Super Federation for backup. He kept redialing but only to be met with automatic voices on behalf of the phone company. He slammed his phone shut, frustrated, “No use. Maybe it’s the signal. Probably, too far out for my service provider or some bullshit the robot lady told me.” 

Magenta wrinkled her nose, “You’d think since we’re much closer to their satellites or something we’d have more service.”

“Sorry,” 

“Don’t worry about it. Maybe we could try again in the library. They have a phone there too, right? Could maybe have some sort of high speed connection to the Feds?” She shrugged. 

She knew she was reaching. There was only so many things she knew about the world of Supers in general, with only one of her parents being a Super and that being the parent she would rarely talk to. 

Zach sighed, not wanting to be useless in this situation, especially when they didn’t have that long to be sitting around trying to figure out how to even leave the classroom, leave this floor without getting detected. He managed to navigate them through the ventilation system. But barely. 

The purple haired girl moved to stand on the desk, reaching for the open vent shaft they had popped from, “We need to figure out how to get to the library without being sniffed out by Gwen’s goons.” 

“So we’re using the vents again?” Zach tried his best to keep his trepidation at bay when asking. 

Magenta nodded resolutely. She knew that the whole small, enclosed spaces were more her jam and for a towering giant such as Zach, it was a bit of a nightmare. But the vents got them out of trouble this far and was a good way to sneak around. 

Zach understood it too and went to hoist Magenta up when he realized something, “But we barely navigated through them this time. We don’t even know what room we’re even in right now. They all look the fucking same.”

He shed his jacket in an attempt to cool down, starting to feel warm from thinking about going anywhere near the vents again, “Wish we had a blueprint to find the blueprint, huh.”

At those words, Magenta remembered something. The classroom. They were in a classroom. She leapt off the desk and ran towards the door, towards what was laminated at velcroed to the back of the door in particular, “Zach, you genius.”

“I am? Maybe I wouldn't really call myself a genius but if you're saying it then I guess-"

“No, you dipshit, come on look,” His friend pointed to the laminate and motioned him forward, “Whenever disaster strikes, we follow the fire drill map.” 

And she thought he was the genius, for her to remember there was such a thing as a fire drill route for a high school when Zach completely forgot. 

He scanned the map, now getting a better sense of where they were on campus. Turned out they were not as far away from the gym as they thought, but after looking over everything one more time, he was quick to point out a problem.

“It’s only for this floor. The rest are the instructions on how to get to the top floor and onto the green,” 

Magenta hummed in agreement. He squinted at the map trying to find a fix. He leaned over her shoulder to point at the star that marked the classroom, “But if that’s us,” he traced the hallway, rounding two corners on the map until he got to where it essentially ends, “And that’s the nearest stairs right?” 

He bopped his finger twice below the map to signify how many floors they need to clear to get to the library. He closed his eyes trying to remember how to get the library, whatever markers he could go off of to know where it would be mapwise. 

“We know the library is two floors below this one, near the stairs-” He pointed to the set of stairs in the opposite direction“-that are near the cafeteria. I guess the east wing of the school,” he read from the map, “Better if we went for those stairs in the vents. It would take longer-” 

“-But better hidden than going down those stairs and booking it for the library,” Magenta finished his thought. They weren’t entirely sure if the only goons that were out there were just patrolling the hallways leading up to the floor where the buses are. 

Magenta glanced up quizzically at Zach, whose arm was still hovering her small frame.

Zach ducked his head, shrugging, “I play enough first person shooter games to know how to work a map.” 

“Impressive,” she remarked, surprised, which earned a grin from the boy. It made him feel better about lying instead of confessing that he had been in the scouts when he was younger. 

Then, Magenta reached out and ripped the map off the door, “So we take this with us. Find out how to get to the stairs through the vents and just sneak down to the library, “And, um,” she looked around to find something to mark it up with.

She ran to the whiteboard, one of the few whiteboards at the school, and grabbed the dry erase marker, “We track where we’re going.” 

She handed the map to Zach, who had proven to be quite the navigator this evening, so she could hike up her skirt enough for her to climb onto the teacher’s desk. She looked back at Zach, “Are you ready?” 

As much as Zach wanted to stay in the shelter of the classroom, he knew that there wasn’t anyone else un-Pacified that knew what they knew. And for them not to do anything about it, while their friends were in danger- Zach could live with the fear but not with the regret of having not done all that he could to save them. 

He swallowed but nodded. He even checked the time. They had lost 5 minutes in their brainstorm session. Best not to waste anymore. 

Zach joined her on the desk, awkwardly trying to see how he could help Magenta up to the hatch since she was too short to reach it, “Uh, do you mind if I just.. uh,” Magenta peered down and saw that his hands were shakily floating over her waist.

This was not the time for them to be sweaty-handed, hormoned up teeanagers right now, but Magenta couldn’t help but find it amusing that Zach thought to ask before he put his hands on her. It was kinda sweet. 

“Um, uh yeah. For sure,” she stumbled through her words, mirroring his nervous energy without meaning to. Zach went and grabbed her at the waist, ”Uh, you better vault me like Swayze, Glowworm.” 

The reference pulled Zach out of his sweaty stupor. He chuckled lightly as he raised her up, getting swatted lightly by the puffiness of her dress. He tucked the marker into his pants pocket and the fire drill map into his mouth before hoisting himself into the vents. 

*****

Zach immediately glowed up once inside. He took out the map and the marker, already knowing which way to go. With their directions in order, they were crawling through the vents at max speed, going by much faster since their first tussle in this metal maze. 

Every now and then they would both stop to peer out of the grates to check where they were or if they heard whenever someone had been walking by. Zach honestly couldn’t for the life of him hear anything besides the sounds of their own breathing in their, but somehow Magenta was able to. Tapping him on the shoulder whenever they needed to stay still and be quiet, or for his case- dim down his green glow. 

He wondered if that was part of her abilities. Did guinea pigs have super sensitive hearing? Maybe it was something to ask once this was all over. Maybe over dinner and a movie? He hoped. He prayed. If he could work up the courage to ask her out after all this. He was surprised he was quick to help with recon and sneaking past what could possibly be armed guards but would blanche at the thought of asking Magenta out on a date. 

More like blanching at the thought of her completely rejecting him if he ever did. He would imagine her actually laughing at the idea of going out with him in front of all their friends… 

_Wow, what a way to boost morale, Zach,_ he thought to himself. 

Overall, it took a couple minutes to reach the eastern stairwell. But once they arrived, the sight made Magenta’s stomach plummet. They stopped in front of the low grate adjacent to the stairwell entrance but there were two more goons marching back and forth down the hallway. There was no way they could shimmy out of this grate without being seen. 

“Shit. There goes our stair exit,” 

“There has to be another way,” It would just waste time trying to turn back now and see if they could try their luck on the other set of stairs. Zach extended his arm and was stunned to find that there was more tunnel in the direction of the stairs, “Over here.” 

They ended up crawling a bit more forward, to where, upon inspection of the upcoming grate, they were in the stairwell, but too high to jump down to the flight below them without making a lot of noise. Magenta stopped at the grate, looking down and immediately pressed her limbs flush against the vent walls, startled to see how high up they were. 

_“Holy fuck,”_ her heart started to beat just a tad bit faster. Small spaces she could do- just not fucking heights. And she knew how funny that sounded coming from a girl who goes to a school thousands of feet above the ground, but she would never entertain the idea of walking to the edge of the school and simply look down. No. No way. 

She took a second for herself to get her breathing under control before setting off after Zach, but she realized he had been rooted at the same spot ahead of her. Curious to why he had stopped, she went around to end up by his side. His arm shot out to keep her from going any further, once she looked down she was met by a dark, gaping hole that went down to wherever- hell, maybe? 

Magenta’s mouth went dry but she tried her best to form words at this point because the thought of almost falling forward down that shaft made her blood run cold, “Um… h-how far does that go down?”

“Down the floor below. I’m hoping,” 

_“You’re hoping?”_ she hissed. 

“Can’t really stick my head down and see if that’s the case,” He reached downwards and had his arm emit a glow that didn’t really reach far down. He then procured the dry erase marker they had been using, “Okay, we’ll try something,” He went and dropped it before Magenta could stop him. Zach quietly counted the seconds until they heard a clang, “That doesn’t sound too far down.” he deemed. 

_Nope. Nope. Nope_.

“Still seems too far to me!” 

“I’m gonna do it,” Magenta’s eyes widened at what Zach was referring to. Did he actually expect to jump down this dark chute? Not knowing how far down it was? And to somehow do it more quietly than hopping down from the grate onto the stairs below?

Zach lifted his head back, done inspecting the tunnel when he hit it against something on the top of the shaft. He craned his head to inspect what it was and saw a hook. An idea sparked. Zach’s adrenaline kicked in and he wiggled his shoes off and handed them off to Magenta, along with the map. He knew it would cause some sort of ruckus getting down but what else could they do. Wait for the goons to leave? 

His hands lowered towards his belt buckle, he threw a bashful look at Magenta, “Um.. I gotta… you know-”

Magenta backed up, scrunching her eyebrows together, “No! I don’t know! What the hell are you-”

“I’m, uh, hold on” He uttered out while pulling his belt from the loops of his pants. He hung the buckle on the hook and let the belt hang, “I’m making rope.” He sent out a silent thanks to his dad for fucking up his suit size and fucking up even more getting a matching belt. He had to poke holes in these to get them to fit. He gauged that their makeshift rope was close to 4 feet. 

“That’s not gonna get you all the way down,” 

“Better this than jumping down,” He tugged on the belt and it seemed to be sturdy enough. He figured the hook was meant to be there for maintenance, so it was bound to hold the weight of someone propelling down shafts like these. 

He took a deep breath before making his descent, despite the contest protests coming from Magenta. Clearly lacking Stronghold strength, he shakily climbed down his leather belt with the upper body strength that he had, clutching on real tight, concerned that his butterfingers would blow it for him. Once he had reached the end of the belt, he knew that he had to make the daring jump. 

_Okay here goes nothing._

Then he let go. 

He hit the ground sooner than he thought, crouching down into a squat, rattling the vents. He kept still even though it was no use if he couldn’t hear the way Magenta could. 

“Zach?” He heard Magenta’s timid whisper echo down. 

He cupped his hands to match her low tone, “I’m okay!” he reassured into the shaft. “Not so bad!” 

“Easy for you to say, you’re a bean pole, the ground is closer for you than me right now!” He could tell she was tense. 

And she was. She definitely was. Knowing that Zach couldn’t see her, she cowered away from the shaft, clinging against the walls. She didn’t want Zach from jumping down because then she knew that she would have to do the same soon enough and she couldn’t have that. 

“I’ll catch you,” she heard him say. 

“It might make too much noise,” she made an excuse. But it was a good one. 

“Please, Maj? We need to go now,” 

“But-but-” 

She can hear him let out a contemplative sigh. He was cooking up an idea, “Do you have anything on you that you can tie onto the belt? Make the rope longer for you?”

Magenta knew she should have brought a purse or something to this fancy event, but she wasn’t sure what to give up for the rope. Her arm warmers for tonight had more inches on them than her usual day-to day ones. But then she remembered she was wearing her stockings tonight. 

Thankful that Zach was gone, she went to slip off her boots and then her stockings, “Incoming,” she warned before tossing him both their shoes, one by one. She didn’t hear any significant noises so she assumed he was able to catch them all. 

She brought up her mesh stockings to her face, stretching it- unsure of its integrity when holding up the weight of a teenage girl who may be in way over her head. But she didn’t wanna make a jump. Not at all. She tied it to the end of the belt, tugged her arm warmers in a way to expose her palms, and she began the descent. 

She had been shaking more than Zach did when he had made his way down. She scaled down the belt part slowly, not wanting to slip. It had been going well, she could hear Zach give encouragement from below, taking in comfort hearing his voice getting louder and seeing his green glow get brighter the more she climbed. But once she grabbed stockings she could feel it slide down the belt from where she tied it. 

She let out a panicked noise which got Zach to rise, peering up to see what’s going on, “Maj?” 

The shapeshifter immediately went back to clutching at the belt, “No, no, no, no.” she whimpered softly to herself. 

From what he gathered, by not having a body crashing onto him, Zach knew she was still hanging on and whatever she had tried to attach to the belt was not working. He could hear her getting more and more scared and he so badly wanted to reach up there and get her but he couldn’t. He needed for her to trust him because there was only one way down. 

“Maj, please. You’re gonna have to let go,” 

“B-But-” 

“I got you. I promise,” 

Magenta let out a shaky breath, struggling to keep herself up especially in her heightened state. It was hard to think logically because all she could think about was not wanting to fall. But Zach was right there… Zach- her friend. Much like Layla, Ethan, and Will. Who needed their help right now.

She remembered what they were doing. Why she even climbed into this dark shaft in the first place. It was for them. For the fucking school. Because she wanted to live to see senior year. She knew she wasn’t going to die down this vent shaft… It was either her falling or the whole school- 

Her body seemed to make the choice for she did, not being able to hold on anymore. The fall was quick but not necessarily painless. She had forgotten to give a warning to Zach because he soon had an armful of Magenta before they both collapsed onto the vent floor. The impact from them falling was more powerful than when Zach had jumped, so much so that the shaft they fell into started to rock. 

They felt the vibrations and braced themselves when all of the sudden the tunnel where their feet were, caved in and they were sliding out of the shaft and into the open air. 

*****

Zach remembered being in the vent one minute and out the next. He was still on his back, from trying to catch Magenta. They were on a platform of some kind, his eyes fluttered open to see a section of the vent broken off in a sort of decline which explained how they slid down so safely. 

He couldn’t make out where they were, it was too dark and he had powered down at one point during their crash landing. There seemed to be no static of walkie talkies or the sound of footsteps heading their way, so it was safe to say- somehow the goons did not hear what just happened. 

There was something pressing on him. 

He propped himself on his elbows, glowing in the process, only to be met with locks of purple hair tickling his chin. Magenta was still on top of him, grabbing onto his shirt tightly, eyes still closed. He had already been breathing hard from the whole ordeal but he nearly stopped breathing at seeing Magenta so still, a vast contrast from how much he could tell she was shaking when speaking to him only moments before. 

“Maj,” He was relieved when he could feel her breathing against him but he tried nudging her, “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

It was silent for a moment before Magenta tentatively cracked an eye open, “Is it over?” she murmured. 

Zach exhaled, hand at his heart, relieved to see that she was okay, “It is. Are you okay?”

She slowly raised her head to look at him, still a bit disheveled from the fall, strands of hair pressed against her face, “Me? You’re the one who took the blow.” 

“Just my butt,” He said after being more aware of a slight soreness on his lower back and below. 

The girl vehemently shook her head, ashamed, “I’m so sorry. I should have gotten over myself and just jumped in the first place. And I should have told you.” 

“What? No, no. It was my fault. You were clearly not into it,” 

“It’s just…” she trailed off. 

“You’re afraid of heights?” Zach assumed, “But, we go on a flying school bus everyday...” 

“There’s… seatbelts…” she defended, “It’s like being on a plane. It’s different than… being up high all by yourself.” 

Zach could tell there was something more to this, “Did something happen?” 

“Um… maybe there was a time when I climbed a tree… as a guinea pig…,” 

“Didn’t know guinea pigs could climb,” 

“It’s because they can’t,” 

Magenta had never told that story before to anyone. But she had been injured pretty bad from that incident, wore casts on her arms- kinda the reason she would be sporting arm warmers even in the summer… to hide the scars… 

Zach tried to ease the distress, rubbing her arm soothingly, “But you’re safe now.”

Magenta gazed at Zach, not getting distracted by the green emanating from him. He did what he said, even though he might not have been totally ready for it- but he was there to catch her. She was aware that she had been captaining their entire endeavor tonight, tugging Zach along and trying to be the calmer and braver one of the two because that was the way it had been since school started. But her calm and bravery expired the minute she was faced with her own personal fear tonight. 

She was grateful that Zach remained cool during the situation, not taking the time to poke fun at her or even judge her for being too chicken. 

“Thanks, Zach,” 

He gave a sincere smile, “Anytime.” 

He turned his head, trying to check their surroundings which jarred them back to the present moment. He couldn’t really see clearly, could barely move his upper body because Magenta was still on top of him. 

Upon noticing the way they were oriented, Zach coughed trying to dislodge whatever spit he was choking on because Magenta was literally straddling him at the moment and it took him a while to see that, “Um… could you, uh, move?” 

Magenta now coming to her senses, grew red in the face, and went to try and get up and get down… on what again? 

“Where are we?” She inspected the platform they were on. It seemed to be made of wood and was narrow enough to hold a teenage boy lying down and sturdy enough to hold the teenage girl on top of him as well, “It’s a shelf.” she concluded, reaching below her and could feel the spines of books against her fingertips. 

“A shelf?” Zach echoed. He assisted Magenta in… urgh, dismounting… and helping her get to the floor safely. He went after her, and stretched out his arms so he could see more of the area. He eventually hit a wall and started clawing around until he found a light switch. 

The room revealed itself to the two which turned out to be a small, semi-cramped space, with the only furniture being a bookshelf with encyclopedias and a table with chairs. Magenta recalled this being a study room. A room that she and her friends had made use of during their study sessions. There were like 3 of them… all at the-

“Library,” Zach burst through the door of the study room and flipped the switch at the nearest wall. In seconds, rows and rows of bookshelves flooded their vision, “No fucking way!” 

What dumb luck they had, crashing into the library, of all places. But it had been possible, now thinking about the map. The library was near the stairs, as in right beside the staircase, so it made sense that the ventilation system they were in was the same one right above a study room. 

The blonde was bouncing around, to confirm that, yes, they ended up exactly where they needed to be. The beloved, spacious grounds for reading, sleeping, and making out- Magenta had never been more relieved to see books in her entire life. 

She rushed forward, helping Zach switch on the lights so they could see everything better, “Okay, what now? You said, something about the archives?”  
  


“Oh yeah,” They crossed the large space, weaving through the tables and shelves until they got to a series of large metal filing cabinets in an alcove behind the circulation desk. There had to be five sets of these three-drawered cabinets to go through. 

“How much time do we have?” 

Zach flipped open his phone, “Shit we got like 23 minutes.” 

They both flew into a frenzy, pursuing through the labels until they found the drawer that might have the relevant information. To their dismay when they tugged the drawer open, they encountered a shitload of documents waiting to be rifled through. 

“We better get digging then,” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any discrepancies in the timing of the situation, I already know that I’m reaching here that they do all they need to do before the 40 minutes run out. But trust me, if you cut out my wordy expositions, they would appear to operate much faster. 
> 
> And I know that Zach wasn't wearing a belt and not entirely sure if Magenta wore stockings but... I take creative liberties :)


End file.
